West Australian couple Russell and Heather Thom got a lot more than they bargained for when they forked over around $75,000 for a luxury 7.2m (23ft 6in) Retreat Mabel caravan.
As the lucky buyers of the 3000th van built by the Melbourne manufacturer since it opened its doors in 2006, Retreat Caravans flew the retired couple to Melbourne, put them up in the Hilton hotel for a couple of nights, and then had them chauffeur driven to a special celebration at the Retreat factory in Campbellfield in Melbourne's north.
Treated like royalty, they were given a factory tour before the official unveiling of the 3000th van in front of factory workers and management, including Retreat owners Sam and Shaz Kaptan.
The emotional couple were also showered with gifts, including a Dometic ice box, Weber BBQ, $1000 fuel card, $500 caravan park voucher and a vintage bottle of Moet champagne.
"Manufacturing 3000 caravans is a fantastic achievement by Retreat, which did the right thing by us all along," Russell said. "We couldn’t fault them, and we can’t say thank you enough; they were awesome."
The Mabel model is a bit different in that it features an east-west queen bed to allow for extra storage including a huge, full width front wardrobe. It was customized slightly to suit the Thoms’ requirements, including extending it by 30cm.
Now back in WA, the Thoms’ immediate plans were to hitch up the van to their new Ford Ranger ute and head north for some dolphin watching at Shark Bay and Monkey Mia.